How Sam Agreed to Go Fishing
by Mandarax
Summary: Threads missing scene/episode tag. Fic writers assume Jack and Sam figured everything out when they were already at the cabin. Maybe they figured it out before?


How Sam Agreed to Go Fishing by Mandarax

Summary - We (viewers, JS shippers and Co.) always assume that whatever happened between Jack and Sam happened when they were already at the cabin. We also assume the team didn't know about the upcoming changes. Maybe, though, just maybe, Jack and Sam get it figured out before going to the cabin? And the team knows it's the end of SG1? Threads episode tag.

A/N - ever since I first watched Threads it has become a sort of hobby of mine to investigate it from every possible angle. This is just the result of one more angle.

Disclaimer - I promise to put the dolls back in place the way I found them - not a scratch on them and not a hair out of place.

=SG1=SG1=SG1=

Jack knocked on the door and pushed his hands into his pockets, waiting for her to open up. He wasn't nervous or twitchy. He had no reason to be. If that look she gave him, and the way she held his hand when they were watching over Jacob a few days earlier meant what he thought they did, he had no reason to be nervous. He bounced on the balls of his feet and waited.

She'd left the base some half hour before him, so he wasn't surprised to see her with her hair wet and wearing a pair of sweats and a USAF tee-shirt when she opened the door. He himself was still wearing his blue BDUs. "Come on in," she invited with a smile and moved away into the house.

Closing the door behind him, he followed her into the kitchen where she'd offered him a beer, took one for herself.

"I come bearing news," he announced and followed her to the living area.

She flopped onto the sofa. "What's up, Sir?" She took a swig from her beer.

He strategically settled on the other side of the sofa, half facing her. He watched her. For someone who'd just lost her father a few days ago, who had just broken off her engagement a few days ago, who had just retrieved a friend she assumed was dead a few days ago, who had just saved the world – again – a few days ago, she seemed very relaxed.

"Hammond's retiring," he said just before the bottle touched his lips.

"Congratulations," her face split into a smile that could light up a galaxy.

"He called me to offer me his job," Jack went on.

Her smile faltered, "And what did you say?"

"That I need time to think about it."

"Oh… kay…"

"And I came here."

She looked puzzled.

"You're sort of good with these important decisions."

A sort of confused smile graced her lips, and she wasn't sure what to think. She thought she understood what he was saying but for once she didn't want to rely on assumptions, she wanted to know for sure. "I'm sort of good with these decisions?"

"I promised you I'd always be there for you."

"You did."

"Sam, I'm a safe bet."

She looked at him, startled, eyes wide. Was that what he meant – she meant – her hallucination of him meant when he'd said it in her concussed world?

"I'm not sure I understand, Sir."

"Call me Jack for this conversation," he said.

She nodded, uncertain half smile still on her lips, "I'm still not following you." Then, as an afterthought she added, "Jack."

She was going to make him say it. And maybe it needed to be said. "This decision will affect you as well, if you want it to."

They'd spent eight years building their relationship on omitting certain things and half spoken truths, and it was fine. Until now. "I think I understand, but I can't be sure. Maybe it's time we stopped talking in riddles." She took a breath, "Air the room, as it were."

He grinned. Air the room. He liked that. She made it easier. He liked that, too. "I promised you always, and I'll be there for you always. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So this decision affects you as well. If you're interested."

If her smile before could light up a galaxy, this one actually did it. For the first time in eight, almost nine years, Jack O'Neill had been forthcoming with his feelings. Short, concise as always, but honest to the bone.

"You'll have to move to DC if you take the job. You'll leave the SGC."

"You'll also still be in my chain of command."

"I'll still be if you stay."

"I know."

They stared at each other, she with a smile, he with concern that she hadn't really said anything in response to his statement, though he was pretty sure she was on board.

"Another position opened up," he said then, dropping another bomb. Or maybe just the other shoe.

"Okay."

"Head of R&D in Nevada."

"Leave the SGC…?" she whispered.

"Leave SG1."

"Wow."

"Hammond asked me to offer it to you. They are very interested in you over in Nevada."

She met his gaze, and all of a sudden she seemed tired.

"Sam," his voice was lower, softer now. "It's a different chain of command."

"But if you're in DC…?"

"We have a very small window of opportunity."

"If I take the job."

"Yeah."

The silence reined for a moment or two, and he could see the wheels in her head turning.

"Jack –"

He took her hand in his. "I would never ask you to give up your career."

This time she wasn't surprised when he'd said the exact same thing her hallucination of him had said. She laced her fingers in his.

"What do you think I should do?" she asked softly.

"I give you a week before you'll go stir crazy in Nevada." He pulled his hand away from hers and pulled a yoyo, his favorite one, out of his pocket, "So I brought you this," he offered it to her.

She took the proffered toy with a giggle. "Thank you."

He grinned at her.

And then he turned serious. "I think you'll be pulling your hair out over there. You like going through the gate too much."

"But it will give us the opportunity to…"

"It will. But I don't want you to sacrifice something you love for –"

"Someone I love even more," she finished his sentence.

He knew he was the luckiest guy in the universe right that moment. He grinned.

Something else occurred to her. "In a couple of months I could ask for a transfer back."

"Which I will approve."

"No one will ever let me come back to the SGC to serve under my…" she wasn't sure how to describe him. He wasn't her husband, he wasn't (yet) her lover, he was too old to be anyone's boyfriend…

"No, I have to be at Homeworld Security to be able to approve your return to the SGC."

She nodded.

"So I guess we're both leaving."

She nodded again and there were tears coming down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey, don't," he took her hand again, pulled her to him, the yoyo falling away, ignored, "Com'ere."

She moved into his arms, burying her face in his neck and she wasn't sure if she was crying because she was happy they were finally sort of honest with each other or sad because they were both leaving and everything was changing… Truth be told, at that exact moment all that mattered was that his arms were around her.

"I have an inkling that Hammond set it up," he whispered and she responded by shaking with laughter against him.

When she pulled back he wouldn't let her go, instead capturing her lips with his in the softest, sweetest, slowest kiss he could muster.

Except she broke it, pulling back quickly, just short of having his arms drop away, "Jack, we can't, we're still – "

"I don't care," and he pulled her in again and she moved into him, with a soft giggle that he swallowed as his lips met hers again.

Hours later, he traced soft circles on her arm and shoulder as they lay tangled in a mass of sheets and legs in her bed. The silence that hung between them was comfortable, easy, broken every once in a while by a soft kiss. He watched her watch him and he remembered times years ago when this young Captain felt the need to prove herself all the time, felt the need to fill the air with words. He tried to think of when that had changed, when the need for words disappeared, replaced by silent communication. How in recent years she was so comfortable with him, with herself, that she no longer needed every second they spent together to be full of anything but spending time together.

"Sam," he whispered.

"Yeah?" a questioning look answered him.

"Want to go fishing?"

Fin


End file.
